title: UV light-induced DNA lesions cause dissociation of yeast RNA polymerases-I and establishment of a specialized chromatin structure at rRNA genes.
abstract: The cytotoxicity of UV light-induced DNA lesions results from their interference with transcription and replication. DNA lesions arrest elongating RNA polymerases, an event that triggers transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair. Since arrested RNA polymerases reduce the accessibility of repair factors to DNA lesions, they might be displaced. The fate of arrested RNA polymerases-II at DNA lesions has been extensively studied, yielding partially contradictory results. Considerably less is known about RNA polymerases-I that transcribe nucleosomes-depleted rRNA genes at very high rate. To investigate the fate of arrested RNA polymerases-I at DNA lesions, chromatin-immunoprecipitation, electron microscopy, transcription run-on, psoralen-cross-linking and chromatin-endogenous cleavage were employed. We found that RNA polymerases-I density increased at the 5'-end of the gene, likely due to continued transcription initiation followed by elongation and pausing/release at the first DNA lesion. Most RNA polymerases-I dissociated downstream of the first DNA lesion, concomitant with chromatin closing that resulted from deposition of nucleosomes. Although nucleosomes were deposited, the high mobility group-box Hmo1 (component of actively transcribed rRNA genes) remained associated. After repair of DNA lesions, Hmo1 containing chromatin might help to restore transcription elongation and reopening of rRNA genes chromatin.
authors.affiliation: Département de Microbiologie et Infectiologie, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC J1E 4K8, Canada and Institut für Biochemie, Genetik und Mikrobiologie, Universität Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Maxime
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tremblay
authors.forename: Romain
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Charton
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wittner
authors.forename: Geneviève
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Levasseur
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Griesenbeck
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Conconi
mesh_terms: D002843:Chromatin / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects; D004249:DNA Damage; D004260:DNA Repair; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000528:radiation effects; D020459:Genes, rRNA; D035463:Pol1 Transcription Initiation Complex Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D011740:Pyrimidine Dimers / Q000378:metabolism; D012318:RNA Polymerase I / Q000378:metabolism*; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000096:biosynthesis; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays; D015003:Yeasts / Q000201:enzymology / Q000528:radiation effects
chemical_list: D002843:Chromatin; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D035463:Pol1 Transcription Initiation Complex Proteins; D011740:Pyrimidine Dimers; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal; D012318:RNA Polymerase I